IBA gives public access to archival treasures

Some of the items are extremely rare and have faded from public consciousness.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
IBA logo 311 (photo credit: Courtesy of IBA)
IBA logo 311
(photo credit: Courtesy of IBA)
If you’ve been in Israel long enough and you’re a radio junkie, there are bound to be songs and programs that you love that you would like to have rebroadcast more often.
Now, you don’t have to sigh with nostalgia and live in hope – you can download many of your favorites from the archives of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
Close to 20,000 programs and songs dating from before statehood until recent years have been digitized and are now accessible at www.iba.org.il/zemerivri.
Some of the items are extremely rare and have faded from public consciousness.
But for some listeners they may be of great significance for any number of historic or personal reasons.
“This is a first step in the establishment of the IBA’s new media and in making the IBA’s extensive archives available to the general public,” IBA chairman Amir Gilat said.
Of the material that is accessible, there are more than 10,000 songs and programs that reflect the pre-state era, and convey the spirit of the state in the making.
The items are categorized under Events, Holy Days and Festivals, Hazanut (cantorial music), Songs, Bible, Sketches based on tradition, Sabbath, Dances, Days of Awe, Music, Settlements, Jerusalem and General.
The project was carried out within the framework of the IBA plenum’s resolve that public broadcasts belong to the public, and that every effort must be exerted to make them available through the new media, thereby increasing the listening pleasure of Internet surfers.
The digital process was conducted in cooperation with the National Library’s Tslil (Sound) Archive. The website through which the archival material can be accessed is part of larger project that is being carried out through the IBA information network under the direction of Moshe Lev, and Israel Radio’s new media division headed by Zelig Rabinovich.